


Price

by justcallmeasmodeus



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 12:06:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justcallmeasmodeus/pseuds/justcallmeasmodeus
Summary: It should have been easy. It was a cut and dry, in and out, slash and burn vampire case. The plan was to find the nest, clear them out, and put up the hunter hat for good. White picket fences and cul-de-sac barbeques as far as the eye could see. They deserved it, after everything they had been through no one would dare argue with that. Life had other plans.





	Price

Sam was amazed at how much of a difference three words could make. Her first ‘I love you’ brought him to life, her ‘we’ll be okay’ held him together after Dean died, and ‘one more hunt’ changed his world forever.

It should have been easy. It was a cut and dry, in and out, slash and burn vampire case. The plan was to find the nest, clear them out, and put up the hunter hat for good. White picket fences and cul-de-sac barbeques as far as the eye could see. They deserved it, after everything they had been through no one would dare argue with that. Life had other plans.

“Stay with me Delilah, you’re going to be okay.” 

Sam held his wife in his arms as he tried to stop the bleeding at her neck. A massacre of headless vampire bodies lay around them, the most recent still oozing blood as it lay within touching distance. His eyes never left her face, as though the horrors around them didn’t even exist. His entire world was in his arms, the very glue of his soul, and he was watching the light fade from her eyes as the color drained from her face.

“I’m sorry Sam, I didn’t see him.” Her words were barely more than a whisper on a ragged breath.

“Shhh it’s not your fault, it’s okay Dee. We’re going to be fine.” Tears burned the back of his throat as the dripped their way down his cheeks.”

“I love you.” The last word died on her lips as he watched her soul burn out.

Sam let out an animalistic scream as he clutched her close to his body. Her blood on his hands was still warm, and he refused to let her go like this. He had promised her that they would have a good life together, and he was going to make good on his promise. He choked back a sob as he stood up, holding her limp form close to his body. He stumbled out to the Impala, a single mission on his mind.

Dean would kill him if he was still alive. So would Delilah for that matter, but they weren’t, and that was the problem. He couldn’t do this alone. He wasn’t anything without one of them. He had lost Dean, and saved Dean, and finally accepting letting Dean go, but he couldn’t lose Delilah.

He drew up the sigails one last time. He mixed the ingredients one last time. He said the spell one last time. He called upon the Queen of Hell one last time.

She appeared before him, blood red from head to toe. She replaced Crowley after Sam and Dean had finally killed him, and she made them regret closing that book.

“Sam Winchester, what have I done to be blessed with your glorious presence?” Her voice dripped like venom from her lips.

“Bring her back. I don’t care what it costs me, I’ll do anything. Just give her back to me.”

Her eyes flicked from Sam’s face to Delilah’s lifeless body on the floor. She tsk’d her tongue and shook her head.

“What a shame. I loved her spunk. It would have been nice to be the one to take her down. We both know the two of you would have never stopped hunting. I wanted to be the one to bring that pain to your eyes.” 

“Asmodeus,” Sam’s voice dropped dangerously low before he hung his head and dropped his shoulders in utter defeat, “please.”

“Sammy it’s no fun when you beg.” Asmodeus whined.

Tears burned down Sams face.

“Fine. I can bring her back, but for a price.”

“Anything. You name it, you can have it.”

“Oh, I won’t be collecting now. I’ll bring her back, perfect and whole as the day she was born, and you won’t have to pay anything now. I won’t collect my payment until she dies again, be it in ten minutes or fourty years.”

Sam studied her, trying to find out where the loophole was.

“No tricks. I won’t send anyone after you to kill her. I’ll even sweeten the deal and I’ll make the two of you off limits to all demons.”

“What if we stop hunting?”

“What you do with your borrowed time is none of my business.”

“Why? This doesn’t seem to benefit you at all.”

“I’ve got a soft spot for you Moose, and I hate seeing you in this much pain if I didn’t cause it. Shall we?”

Sam stepped forward and pressed his lips to Asmodeus’, signing the contract. Behind him Delilah sucked in a breath and coughed. He turned and instantly dropped to her side, pulling her close to his chest as he felt her heart beat strong beneath him. Her body warmed beneath his, and he held her close, as if the more he held her the more he could put himself together.

 

They stopped hunting. Sam finished college, they bought the house, they put up the fence. Sam woke up every night for the first year in a cold sweat, pulling Delilah closer to him to prove to himself that she was real. The second year it happened once a month. The third year it hardly happened at all.

Three words changed his life once more, in the middle of a very stormy March night.

“It’s a boy!”

Sam had never felt something as fragile as the fresh life of his newborn son. He sat next to Delilah while she slept, holding his sleeping son in his arms. Nothing from his past mattered any more. Here in his hands lay a fresh start, a clean slate, the reason for life itself. Sam Winchester thought that he had known love, but he knew nothing until this moment.

In the short time span of twelve borrowed years, Sam had locked away the memory of his deal with Asmodeus until one day it came forth, hitting him square in the chest and knocking the life out of him. It had been an accident, but then again it’s hardly ever intended. John had a little league game on Friday that he would never play in. Delilah had chicken thawing in the fridge that would never be made. One minute they were there, holding him together, mending every single broken, scared and fractured piece, and the next they were gone. Their smiles and laughs turned into ghosts, burned into his eyelids and haunting every blink.

Sam had known what he would do ten minutes after he saw them there, lying on the morgue tables. John looked impossibly small once more, even though he was overly large for his age. He had a few marks from the accident, the tips just poking out above the white sheet. His face, miraculously unmarked, was frozen in a blank expression and looked naked without his wide goofy smile. Delilah looked as though she might have been sleeping off the flu. Her face was peaceful yet pale, the scars from her hunting years blending in with the creamy whiteness of the death that had finally settled upon her for good.

Sam arranged their funerals, mechanically going through the motions. He accepted twenty casseroles at least, a few cases of beer, and the wayward houseplant or two. He didn’t pay much attention, they didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore, accept for his end goal. A few more gray days and this would all be over.

It was raining the day he went to say goodbye. He knelt on the soft disturbed earth, not caring about muddy jeans or wet knees. The rain mixed with his tears and helped hide his brokenness from the world. He reached out and touched the cool granite, giving himself a solid reminder of why he couldn’t fight this fight anymore.

He sloshed through the house afterwards, carrying the box from the bunker. He went to John's room, and sat down at the foot of the bed. He spread pictures around himself, tears falling as he looked at each one and remembered the happier times.

There was one with him and Dean and the Impala, looking ragged after a hunt. There was one Dean snuck of Sam and Delilah kissing for the first time. There was Delilah on their wedding day, Delilah while she was pregnant, Delilah and John moments after he was born. She was seared into every fiber of his being, and now she was gone.

In a way he figured this would be poetic justice. Dean had gone down at the end of the barrel of a loaded gun just like he prophesied, it was only fitting Sammy followed him the same way.

The barrel was cold as it sat between his lips, and the metallic tang had a bitter aftertaste of gunpowder. He pulled up his happiest memories, searing them into his mind as he took a breath and pulled the trigger.

Asmodeus’ laugh rang out through the bedroom as the gun clicked in his hand. Ignoring her he check the gun over, saw that it was in working condition, and tried again. It gave the same soul shattering click as before. Sam pointed it at the wall and pulled the trigger, and it fired beautifully. 

“It’s no use Moose, I’m here to collect, and you need to pay your price.”

“You already took John.” Sam growled, fresh tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Oh, that wasn’t me dearie. Oh no, my prize is much more fun.”

Throwing down the gun Sam picked up another from the box of old hunting supplies with the same result. Weapon after weapon he tried, until he was sobbing and surrounded by a pile of broken blades and unfireable guns. Asmodeus’ eyes danced as she laughed at his growing desperation.

“ _Please_ ,” he begged, “ _just let me die_.”

“Why? This is just getting to the good part.”


End file.
